


III. The Empress

by monodramatic



Series: 3H Tarot Prompts [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route Spoilers, Gen, M/M, Mild Blood, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), byleth is nb if that matters to anyone?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22871215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monodramatic/pseuds/monodramatic
Summary: It’s over. Everything they had fought for, everything they had sacrificed for. Over.
Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra, Not the Main Focus
Series: 3H Tarot Prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620109
Kudos: 15





	III. The Empress

It’s over. Everything they had fought for, everything they had sacrificed for. Over.

Some of them are saying it doesn’t feel real. For Hubert, it felt real as soon as he saw the Empress’s head leave her shoulders and roll down the throne room floor, lifeless. He couldn’t even see her blood. It had blended in so seamlessly with the shades of red she had adorned her palace in.

Somehow, the rest of them are all still alive. Byleth had insisted. Hubert supposes it was meant to be an act of mercy, but it doesn’t feel merciful. All this can be is evidence of them playing the role they’re meant to play. The Archbishop kindly sparing those who had turned against them.

Hubert had obviously been a danger to anyone left standing. It’s not as though his former classmates and fellow soldiers had ever trusted him any more than the Kingdom soldiers he fought against. Through all of Byleth’s mercy, they had still decided Hubert must die too.

Somehow, he still stands - a free man despite his heinous crimes. He has one person to thank for that. Is thank the right word? Maybe, maybe not. Hubert isn’t sure of much anymore. Someone had stepped in at the last moment on an attempt to save him. Someone decided he, of all people, was worthy of a second chance.

Ferdinand von Aegir, someone so honest and charismatic - so broken - that the Kingdom could not help but grant him this. Hubert was as good as dead - is still as good as dead - but stands tall because of Ferdinand von Aegir.

He almost wishes Ferdinand would have left him, wishes the soldier tasked with his execution had carried through. Maybe that would be better for all of them. He feels lost and weak, not emotions he’s particularly well acquainted with.

But when he looks back, when he reflects on the man who taught him to love, who lead his way through the darkness with such a bright warmth, Hubert knows he can’t be upset with him. He’s still upset, still angry and broken, but he can never direct that hatred at someone he cares so deeply for.

It’s almost funny. If you had told 18 year old Hubert that the Empire would fall and he would still accept being alive, he would’ve had you committed. He may have even done the same six months ago. The idea sounded so insane so recently, but today it is undeniably real. He wishes it would have ended differently, they all do, but what’s done is done. Empress Edelgard has fallen, they are free (In the barest sense of the word), and now they each have to carve themselves a new path.

Hubert doesn’t know what he will do. He doesn’t know where to go or who to be. Some of them seem to have already decided. It makes him wonder if they were ever trustworthy allies, or if they were just following orders because they were too afraid to do otherwise. It doesn’t matter though. Not anymore. The only option left is to move forward. What that means, he doesn’t know. He may never know. What he does know is that it’s the only thing he can do.

So forward he shall move, guided through the darkness by his star.

**Author's Note:**

> okay so i knew i was going to have to do something with edelgard for the empress, but the problem is that i just dont like her very much? however. i really love hubert. ive never written him before, but i had a lot of fun with it and i look forward to writing more of him in the future.
> 
> anyways follow me on twitter @monodramatic_


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